BACKGROUND

The Public Works Directives (PWD) have been prepared under Rule 62 of the Financial
Administration Regulation, 2056 (FAR), recently updated in October 2001. The PWD combine
the FAR and other rules and regulations of HMG/N concerning technical, social and
environmental matters to provide a single source of procedures and reference documents for
implementing public construction works.

The PWD have been prepared by the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works with the
assistance of the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Local Development, the Ministry of
Tourism and Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the Financial
Comptroller General’s Office and the National Planning Commission. Consultant services for the
development of the PWD were provided under the Asian Development Bank Technical Assistance
No. 3306-NEP Strengthening of Project Implementation Practices.

The PWD are based upon a combination of (1) existing procedures and rules contained in
HMG/N laws and regulations, (2) actual practices in Nepal, (3) selected procedures from donor
guidelines and (4) international best practices. The objective is to provide a set of
understandable, effective, efficient and practical directives.

APPLICATION

The PWD are intended for use of HMG/N's agencies in the implementation of central-level
projects and district-level projects carried out by the regional/divisional/district offices of HMG/N.
The PWD also incorporate procedures and procurement documents for implementing small
projects and thus local bodies may benefit from adopting many of the contents of the PWD.

STATUS OF PWD ON 15 MARCH 2002

The PWD have been approved by the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works with the
concurrence of the Financial Comptroller General's Office, the Ministry of Law, Justice and
Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Water Resources.

It is expected the PWD will be submitted for Cabinet approval by the end of March 2002.

Until Cabinet approval is received the PWD do not have official status but they certainly may be
used as guidelines and reference information on all public works projects.

The PWD may also be viewed and downloaded from PWD website
www.publicworksdirectives.gov.np